Customer Reviews

Kill for Me [With Headphones]

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I usually love Karen Rose's books, but this one just didn't hold my interest. Usually I read a good book in about two days but I have been struggling with this one for over a week and I honestly don't think I am going to finish it, which is a shame because I am 3/4 of the way through. It just feels like too much of a struggle.

It is very well written, so that's not the problem and that's why I gave it 3 stars as opposed to 1. I just think there is too much going on. Too much killing. Too many characters. Too much to keep track of. I'm having a hard time remembering who's related to who and who fits into the rapes that happened in the previous books and keeping track of who is killing who. It's just confusing me and making the book drag. It would help if I remembered the first two books, but I read them a long time ago and I am an avid reader so I've read many books in between. And I don't want to have to go back and read them again just to understand what is going on in this one.

Like I said, it's well written. I just think there is too much going on and it makes the book drag. I do look forward to her next one though.

This book has many, many problems: enough to make it only the second book that I've not been able to finish. In no particular order:

1. Even though I've read the prequels, I had a hard time keeping up with all of the characters in this book. There are literally dozens, each with their own piece of the story to tell. Those storylines connect them to the main story, but every few pages (sometimes not even that) is a different character/different story perspective, so the clarity and continuity are non-existent. It makes for a choppy, non-linear read.

2. There is never a break in action. Someone is either being murdered or attacked. No lulls at all. This is exhausting.

3. There is no real romance. I made it to page 203 without anything more than 'long, lingering glances' in which both the H/h feel like there is a connection between them, but have too many personal hangups to do anything about it. Of course, this book is about a child trafficking/prostitution ring, so there really shouldn't be any room for romance, but there are so many broken characters, I would have liked to have seen a HEA for someone (I'm told this *does* happen, but I didn't make it through the book in order to experience it).

4. The heroine is annoying. Yes, she's been through hell. Yes, she has every reason to feel badly about her past and what she did/didn't do. However, this self-hatred is expressed every time the character talks to anyone or has internal dialogue; she ends up being both self-deprecating and self-loathing, neither in a charming manner, thus, she comes across as whiny with no real redeeming qualities. Her standoffish manner is supposed to hide a vulnerability, but it really just made her seem like a [...].

5. I'm sure the Hero would be an amazing man, given the right circumstances, but throughout the entire first half of the book (I made it to page 203 before giving up) he is working on a child trafficking/pornography case with multiple victims both dead and exploited, so all we really get to see is how stressed out and burned out he is. That he also has to deal with an attraction to the h made me feel bad for him: she's not worth it.

To sum it up: don't bother with this book. It's convoluted and unnecessary. But it is also a blip. Karen Rose usually writes intelligently, with emotion and guts. Every other book I've read of hers is top-notch, and hopefully her next book will redeem her.

Kill for Me by Karen Rose

Let me start off by saying this is probably going to be one of the shortest reviews I have ever written... in a good way! I am afraid if I go into too much detail that it would be a spoiler to those that have read the other books in the series.

Karen Rose is the author of Die for Me, and Scream for Me, a New York Times Best Seller. I can see why she made the best seller list!! Having not read her two previous books in this trilogy, I did at times feel like I had missed out on some major crucial details in Kill for Me, but every single moment of this book was engaging, and suspenseful to the max!

Susannah Vartanian was one of the girls raped thirteen years ago by a group of young rich boys, and has yet to be able to live a normal life. With the help of Agent Luke Papadopoulos and the whole PD and FBI Dept's in Dutton, Georgia and a few other states, Susannah may finally get some insight to her past, and find out what her brother Simon had going on in his sick head. Susannah is about to discover that her whole life has been something other than what she has known, she will have to do something she has never done before. Lean on Luke to help her through this, that may prove to be more difficult that either could have ever expected.

Nothing is as it seems in Kill for Me, there are so many dark buried secrets, a huge cast of characters, and a whole lot of danger. Explosive, cunning, and purely magnificent, I have no other choice but to pick up the other two novels I haven't read. Karen Rose has got the skill it takes to enthrall a reader. In the beginning I was overwhelmed because as I said I think I missed a lot of history from not reading Die for Me and Scream for Me, this shouldn't be a stand alone book... but somehow it kind of works. 5 Hearts

Hachette Book Group
ISBN# 0446510300

I read the first 2 books in the series so should have been prepared for this authors' tendency to see how many brutal murders she can stack up by the end of the book. However, I felt this one was overdone. Perhaps it bothered me that so many were teens (and just a bit of a spoiler) the teen boy that is murdered when he could have easily just been shoved out of the car. Some of the senseless murders in this book did not add to the story. I think the storyline would have gone off as well without some of the body count. Also there were so many characters in this book, I had a difficult time keeping track of them and some of them were in the first books but since it had been awhile since i read those it was a bit confusing.

I think Karen Rose is probably a good writer (and why I gave it a 3 instead of a 1)but think she wastes her talent on torture and brutal murder scenes. There is little humor to offset the violence of the book. Probably the redemption of the book is Luke and his family. They lightened it a little.

I'm not really criticizing this author's writing ability but the story line was just very depressing to me. It left me wanting something light and fun so picked up a new Linda Lael Miller Book (the first in her new "Montana Creed" series). You have humor, children, dogs, horses, fun and romance of course with a little mystery thrown in.

Again since I had read Karen Rose books before I should have been more prepared for this one. There were so many bad guys in this one-for awhile I thought they outnumbered the good guys. I don't care for the graphic details of a victim. I think I don't need quite the graphic details of the brutality and it got on my nerves not due to the suspense but dreading the next page would be another killing or torture.

If a person likes a lot of brutal murder and even the good guys were damaged then this is the book for you. I didn't think Ms. Rose could surpass Simon's brutality in the first book but I actually believe she did. I usually read books that are deep but not so dark as this one or something lighter. Once in ahwile for something different I have read books such as Karen Rose writes just for a change of pace but as I said this one was just a bit depressing. However, I see others really like it but I don't enjoy reading of children tortured or brutally murdered. Even Susannah was annoying at times. It annoyed me from the first book how she hated Daniel and wanted no part of him because he didn't stay around and do what???? He was a kid himself and didn't even know what had happened to her. HE actually thought he was protecting her more by leaving. How big of her to finally forgive him in this book. There were just things about her character that annoyed me off and on. Yes, she was a victim but she hadn't gone through half of what these other teens who had been brutalized for weeks on end. Well an interesting book to say the least.

I was disappointed in this third of the Vartanian series. The first third of the book brings new readers up to speed with what happened in Die For Me. With her estranged brother, GBI agent Daniel recovering from wounds sustained in a raid on a white slavery ring, Susannah, a New York Assistant District Attorney, is in Georgia to provide her statement in a thirteen year old rape investigation (also the subject of the previous book). It appears that she was a victim not only of that rape but also a second rape that occurred in New York and resulted in the murder of a woman she believed to be her friend. Of course all these cases are related and although she has no official status she becomes involved in the investigations, getting shot at multiple times and falling in love with another GBI agent, an internet sex specialist and her brother's closest friend, Luke Papadopoulos. Old secrets are revealed and corruption exposed as the body count mounts. Unfortunately, it is all more exhausting than exhilarating.

This book is way too long and repetitious. It is cluttered with minor characters who are confusing and unnecessary. It is a relief when one by one they get knocked off. The motivations are iffy and the town of Dutton is so vile, it is hard to believe that anyone would stay there. It strains belief that it is so far under the radar of the non-corrupt state officials. They. however, are too busy whining about their jobs and throwing tantrums over the evils of sexual abuse and child exploitation. The emotional state of these law enforcement professionals is so raw, it is amazing that they can even marginally function. However, probably the weakest point of the book is Susannah herself. She is not very interesting and her anguish over being a rape victim rings false as does her guilt over her promiscuity. Although she is supposed to be an experienced criminal prosecutor, she seems to have no understanding of rape shield laws or the criminal process. She thinks everything is about her which makes her boring and tiresome. don't get me wrong--sex crimes in all their disgusting varieties are horrid---but we all know that and don't need to be continually clobbered over the head by every character outraged by them. Being a rape victim is traumatic but Susannah is more concerned about being on the front page of the newspaper and that it would negatively impact her career.

The story's villains vacillate from being coldly efficient to wildly deranged. Moreover, the puppet master in all these evil doings does not seem to be sufficiently charismatic to have all these people in his thrall.

That being said, there are worse ways of killing time than reading this book. I would suggest reading Die For Me prior to tackling this one. This is not a stand alone novel and too much of the storyline overlaps to make sense.

I somehow missed book 2 of the series, but even having read book 1, the story was convoluted and confusing. Way too many characters, several with false/multiple identities, and after a while I stopped caring about who was who. None of the characters are particularly likable, even the heroine, and the subject matter was just too dark and depressing. It went beyond being a crime thriller to just being seedy and disturbingly brutal, yet also unbelievable that virtually every crime possible would have happened in one little town, and no one would have done anything about it. The chase seems endless, the police inept (how many times can one person be surrounded by law enforcement and escape?) and the relationships forced. I won't be seeking book 2 any time soon.

While I think this book was probably the best of the triology, I agree with all the other reviewers who said too much time has gone by between releases, making it somewhat difficult to follow at times. I've already read the other two books, but several times, I had to go find my copies of them and look things up to remember who was who or what had happened to someone. This book definitely doesn't stand on its own and really shouldn't be read without having read the previous two.

I also felt there were too many characters to keep them all straight, especially during the daily meetings.

Otherwise, another fantastic book by an author who's quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Kill for Me is fast-paced; a page turner that keeps you guessing until the end! I was really please with this story because it gave me a lot of clues, yet I STILL wasn't able to pick out one of the killers; I was stunned when the main villain was revealed. This book reads like a block-buster movie and I for one, would like to see it adapted to film...this is a movie that I would go to the theatre to see! There were some shocking and unexpected plot twists and some very typical ones for a book in this genre. The love scenes, though few and far between, were very intense and highly sensual. I would have liked to see a little more graphic detail in some of the scenes as it would have made the story that much more realistic and would have pulled the reader deeper into the book. The characters are well developed, each with a distinct personality that sometimes left a bad taste in my mouth; I wanted to the bad guys to meet a terrible end and hoped for the good guys & gals to win the day. Luke Papadopoulos is strong and steadfast, yet he is very vulnerable because of the atrocious content that he is exposed to in his line of work; his sense of failure and powerlessness hangs over him like a dark cloud. Susannah Vartanian has secrets from her past that have come back to haunt her; her tough outer facade begins to crumble under the weight of these investigations and during the search for victims, for those who might have been spared had she been braver in the past. Can Luke and Susannah work with the investigative team to unravel the mysteries surrounding the kidnapping and trafficking ring or will they become ensnared in the deceitful web of lies and become targets themselves? You'll have to read it to find out!
I highly recommend this book!

(8 out of 10 Diamonds) - Thoroughly enjoyed it

© 2008-2009 Bobbie Crawford-McCoy (Book Reviews By Bobbie).
All rights reserved.

When the FBI embarks on a raid on a compound where several young women have been raped, tortured and murdered, they find one victim barely alive. She immediately bonds with Susannah, also a victim of the same group of men, but many years before, who her brother Daniel has been trying to discover and put behind bars for years. With Daniel injured in the hospital, Susannah is paired with his partner Luke, who has his own reasons for wanting to see justice done. As an atraction develops between the two, and the culprits are still at large, Susannah's ghosts from her past and inability to trust may doom their chances for a future.

Rose's third installment in the trilogy which started with the riveting "Die For Me" requires readers to re-familiarize themselves with the other two in the series, yet might still scratching their heads. Far too much time has passed between releases, and it is so overpopulated with too many subplots and red herrings. The romance is very minimal, and the character of Susannah so damaged that it seems hard to see her in a stable relationship - it just didn't seem plausible and the story just not up to par with her earlier works.

© Tracy Vest, April 2009

This book is not a stand alone novel the characters carry over from die for me and scream for me the release dates were too far apart to make the final triliogy understandable there were just too many characters and I had to go back to reread part of the first two to remember the story behind the start of the triliogy. The relationship between susannah and luke could have had more that just one quickie sex scene between the two considering her sexual history luke was sexually like the others there should have been more tendernes but all in all it was a good book hopefully in the future ms rose will release her triliogies closer together and delete some of the characters